My rationale for most of them was to keep the rules changes to a minimum, and only port in the rules I need to maintain the flavour of the setting.

I also picked up the SW Handbook - Perilous Places & Serious Situations from TAG, specifically for its rules on desert survival and trap generation. Although a lot of the other sections will probably get used too.

This is a work in progress so there will be some minor tweeks and changes here and there.

Very nice! I was inspired over the weekend to dig out my old DS boxed set and my mind has been wandering in conversion territory. It's also good to see an update from the previous (pre-SW release) conversion. Very nice.

BTW, how are half giants working out for you guys? Looking over the DS rule book, I was amazed at how so many of their benefits were balanced by their alignment shifting. So much so I was considering leaving them out of the PC races if I ever ran a SW DS game. There just isn't a mechanic in SW that can substitute that concept. So I'm curious how they have worked in the game you're playing in.

Well, since SW doesn't use alignments it's a tough call for half-giants. I tried to focus more on their static racial penalties (i.e. they are pretty stupid) from the rulebooks. Giving limited Smarts and Spirit, plus the Clueless hindrance reflects this well I think. Plus they have to pay double for almost all their gear and need more water out in the desert. Those are big hindrances in Dark Sun! In addition, I used the Ogre race from Shaintar as a skeleton for the half-giant where I could.

I used the Fantasy World Builder Toolkit to balance most of the racial abilities with penalties, and tried to only include the important ones in the racial stats. The other abilities that many races got later on I put as racial edges, similar to what Sundered Skies did.

The half-giant was actually not the hardest. The thri-kreen took way longer.

Makes sense. However, since so much of the real character of the half giant was wrapped up in that childlike impressionability, I really think it needs to be made a part of the race somehow. Maybe some sort of Single White Female disadvantage that requires them to emulate the most charismatic/enigmatic presence in the group (and lash out terribly if rebuked). Hmmm...

And yes, mechanically I imagine the thri-kreen would have been much tougher. I liked the way you made their inherent (but level based) abilities edges. Good call.